LAPTOP STUDIO & MUSIC BOX
Below is information that can help you as a laptop owner:

1. Turn your existing laptop into a music box.
2. Build a laptop music box from scratch.
3. Start making professional music on your laptop.

Let's start with the easiest task which is turning your existing laptop into a music box
What you need:

• Minimum 266MHz processing power and 128 MB RAMThe faster the laptop, the more audio tracks & Plug-ins you'll get out of it.
• Software: "Reason" and "Fruity Loops" are the name of the software packages, you caneasily download the from Kazaa.com, they are newer all-in-one software packages thatrequire less processing power from your laptop. In other words they are idea for older lowerspecification laptops.In addition to the main programs, you should take advantage of all the soft synths, samplersand effect plug-ins which can all be downloaded for free.

Build a laptop music box from scratch
What you need to do:

• Pick a machine
• Peripherals
• OS, Software and other hardware
  • There are several different models for both Apple laptops and Windows based laptops.For Apple laptops, the minimum recommended specs for the processor is a G3 500MHz. For Windows laptops, the minimum recommendation is PIII 700MHz. The faster the laptop, themore audio tracks and Plug-ins you'll get out of it.Red Submarine (www.sub.co.uk) is a british company which builds laptops specially optimised formusic making.For Apple lovers, the iBook starting with a G3 500MHz processor and the powerbook starting witha G4/550 processor are great picks.
  • Screen Size is a very important factor to consider for users looking to tackle several musicapplications at one time. Some laptops like Sony now offer 17" laptop screens, not anyone can affordthis model but basically anything over 13" is perfect for the job.A 10 GB hard drive would be very adequate {{EMAGIC harddrives recommend a minimum speed of 7,200 rpm (revolutions per minute) Althoughmost laptop hard drives range in speeds between 4,200 and 4,800, they're still able to handleaudio recording and Playback decently well.Also, although "Access Time" or "seek time" is supposed to be less than 10 Milliseconds,laptop hard drives work perfectly well without meeting this specification}}and the RAM should be no less than 256 MB to fully utilize programs like LOGIC and CuBase.
    The following ports are crucial to have in a laptop: Fire Wire (Sony calls it i-Link), USB,and PCMCIA. These ports will enable you to hook up the laptop to various peripherals to completeyour music box.Sound and Quality: An Internal laptop sound speaker should do the job, but for those who appreciate music the way it's supposedto sound: you should definetely fo with a PCMCIA sound card or a USB/FireWire audio interface.Most of the options are 24 bit. We highly recommend the RME Hammerfall DSP PCMCIA Sound Cardas a package with the DIGIFACE BREAKOUT BOX and the PCI CARD for DESKTOP MIGRATION.DIGIFACE BOX, Provides I/O, MIDI, low latency, 26 input & output channels www.rme-audio.comOther brands to consider are DIGIGRAM'S VX Pocket Mark 2, M-Audio's Quattro, MOTU's FireWire and EMAGIC's EMI 2/6 based 828 Musical Keyboards...etc:Now let's talk about how to play music into your sequencer, using musical keyboards and etc... Most Musical Keyboards are MIDI based which means you'll need a MIDI interface. MIDI interface brands to consider are:EVOLUTION MK-125, the best option specially if portability is a factor (THE WHOLE PURPOSE OF OWNING A LAPTOP)Another option is the latest model from MIDIMAN called OXYGEN 8. Other Hardware:An external mouse is definetely preferred over a trackpad mouse specifically the mini-optical mouse which is small enoughyou can manuever it on your laptop.
  • Most software runs best on WINDOWS 98 Second Edition, 2000, ME and XP. For Apple, users,few applications are available for OS X (which means you should pay attention if you'repurchasing an Apple iBook or an Apple Powerbook new laptop) Software on Apple work best on OS 9.1There are 2 types of software to choose from:a) Traditional sequencer packages like EMAGIC's LOGIC AUDIO & STEINBERG'S CUBASE VST.b) All-in-one programs like FRUITY LOOPS and REASON. You should now have all what it takes to get started.

Start making professional music on your laptop
OK,,,You decided to step into the challenging and sophisticated arena of serious synth and sampler modulation.read section (2) Build a laptop music box from scratch. Because you'll need a laptopwith the same specs, peripherals....etcYou'll also need a MIDI controller like GMEDIA'S PHAT BOY. This piece of hardware does however require AC power.You'll also need a MIC (some kind of phantom power and pre-amp) to record professional quality Audio. Most MIC's like theRHODE and JOE MEEK ranges require 48 Volts Phantom power and a PRE-AMP to boost their signal to the laptop.The MOTU 828 comes with all this built-in along with the JOE MEEK TRAKPAK www.joemeek.net
A CD BURNER is also a must to save your music, you won't find any difficulty finding this deviceat any computer hardware store.

World's First Laptop:
Laptop Computers have become widly popular in recent years. Their appeal lies in their portability: the light, compact computers can be taken anywhere, liberating busy people from the confines of their offices. Almost 8 million PC laptops were sold in the United States last year, and according to Gartner, a market research firm based in Stamford,CT, over the next 4 years, laptop sales will grow at approximately twice the rate of desktop computer sales. Yet the laptop's basic design hasn't changed much since it was created some 2 decades ago.

Back in the 1970's, when computers were anything but portable, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) www.parc.xerox.com researcher Alan Kay http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/GASCH.KAY.HTML conceived the initial idea for the laptop. He hashed out a design for a notebook-size portable computer he called the Dynabook. It was pure theory, however: the technology did not yet exist to make the Dynabook a reality, and Xerox was
unwilling to fund development of the idea. But another Xerox PARC researcher, John Ellenby, decided to give the notebook-size computer a shot. In 1979 Ellenby founded his own company, GRiD Systems. He presented his idea to Bill Moggridge, of IDTwo, a San Francisco design firm. Moggridge and his team soon got to work, and in 1981 the COMPASS LAPTOP was born.

The Compass was bursting with innovative design ideas, most of which are taken for granted today. Although hefty by current standards, the eight pound Compass was much lighter than desktop computers of the time. It had a built-in modem, thin-screen display, and protective metal casing. Its most influential feature by far, though, was it's hinged design: when the computer was not in use, its screen could be folded over the keyboard, making the Compass compact and protecting it from damage. In fact, the design was so influential that GRiD Systems made some $7 million by licensing its design patents to other laptop makers such as Toshiba and Sanyo.

Later Ellenby founded GeoVector, a San Francisco mobile-device technology company. Moggridge cofounded IDEO, the Palo Alto, CA, firm that designed the Handspring Treo, a cutting-edge personal digital assistant. On their heels, other laptop makers would make advances, partcularly in power supply design and wireless capability. But back in 1983 the Compass was far enough ahead of its time to be used by NASA on Space Shuttle missions: the Compass was the first PC to travel to outer space. It's influence on laptops today continue to be out of this world.